NCAA Basketball Tournament: A History of March Madness
March Madness is an informal term referring to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men’s and women’s basketball championship tournaments. The term also encompasses the widespread fan interest in and media coverage of these events. These single-elimination tournaments commence each March, showcasing fields of 68 teams. Teams qualify either by securing their conference title or by receiving an at-large entry from the NCAA’s selection committee.
Origins and Early Years (1939-1970s)
The competition that would become March Madness dates back to the NCAA's first Division I men's basketball tournament in 1939. The first men’s tournament was held in 1939, but it was overshadowed for most of the first two decades of its existence by the National Invitation Tournament (NIT). The NIT was considered more prestigious and usually featured the best teams in the country. The inaugural NCAA championship game took place on March 27, 1939, with the Oregon Ducks defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes 46-33 to become the first NCAA national champions.
Initially, only eight teams were invited to participate in the NCAA tournament. Throughout its early years, the NCAA tournament faced competition from the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), which was founded in 1938. The NIT was held entirely in New York City at Madison Square Garden. Because New York was the center of the press in the United States, the NIT often received more coverage than the NCAA tournament in early years.
The NCAA tournament gradually began to draw the top teams and more television revenue. By the time the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), began its record run of seven consecutive titles in 1967, the tournament was firmly established as the premier college basketball postseason championship series in the United States.
Expansion and Growing Popularity (1970s-1980s)
The key to the tournament’s eventual national appeal was television coverage, and at first networks and sponsors showed little interest. The NCAA’s title game made its initial appearance on national television in 1954, but it was available only where local stations paid a syndicator for access. The NCAA charged the syndicator a mere $7,500 for rights. Local stations showed the championship contest between LaSalle College and Bradley University as a delayed broadcast. The NCAA’s lean years in national television coverage continued until 1963, when a prosperous syndicator, Sports Network Incorporated (SNI), offered $150,000 for broadcast rights to the championship game for six years. It sold access to the 1963 title match-up to 125 stations. For the first time the NCAA championship was shown live in prime time on national television, and viewers were treated to a thrilling, overtime victory for Chicago of Loyola over the University of Cincinnati.
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Two major changes over the course of the early 1970s led to the NCAA becoming the preeminent post-season tournament for college basketball. First, the NCAA added a rule in 1971 that banned teams who declined an invitation to the NCAA tournament from participating in other post-season tournaments. Since then, the NCAA tournament has clearly been the major one, with conference champions and the majority of the top-ranked teams participating. Second, the NCAA allowed multiple teams per conference starting in 1975.
The size of the tournament field increased incrementally from 8 teams in 1939 to 64 teams in 1985. In 1975, to accommodate at-large bids, the tournament expanded to include 32 teams, allowing a second team to represent a conference in addition to the conference champion, and eliminated byes. In 1979, the tournament expanded to 40 teams and added a sixth round; 24 teams received byes to the second round. Eight more teams were added in 1980 with only 16 teams receiving byes, and the restriction on the number of at-large bids from a conference was removed.
The term March Madness was first used in reference to basketball by an Illinois high school official, Henry V. Porter, in 1939. March Madness first became associated with the NCAA tournament after CBS broadcaster Brent Musburger referenced it during his coverage of the tournament in 1982.
Modern Tournament Format (1985-Present)
In 1985, the tournament expanded to 64 teams, eliminating all byes and play-ins. For the first time, all teams had to win six games to win the tournament.
A 65th team and corresponding “play-in game” were added in 2001, when a new conference with an automatically qualifying champion was created and the NCAA did not want to lower the number of high-profile at-large schools it could invite to the tournament. In 2011 the NCAA added three additional opening-round games to the field, bringing the field to 68 teams.
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The men’s tournament format (not including the play-in games) consists of four subsets known as regions, each of which contains 16 teams that are seeded number 1 to number 16 by the selection committee and then matched up according to seed, with the number 1 seed playing number 16, number 2 playing number 15, and so on. (The selection committee generally comprises university athletic directors and conference commissioners.) Two of the four first-round games pit the four lowest-seeded teams (often the champions of the smallest conferences in the NCAA) against each other to determine two of the 16 seeds, while the other two first-round games feature the final four at-large teams, which are traditionally 11 or 12 seeds. Once all sixty-eight teams have been selected, they are divided into four separate geographic divisions and placed into a bracket of sixteen teams.
The second- and third-round games take place later in the first week of the tournament at eight geographically dispersed sites, and the 16 teams that move on to the second week (having won both their second- and third-round games) are referred to as the “Sweet Sixteen.” These remaining teams then proceed to four regional sites and are further winnowed to an “Elite Eight” and a “Final Four,” the last of which advances to yet another location for the national semifinals and finals in the third week of the competition.
Heading into the tournament, teams in each geographical region of the bracket are seeded, or ranked, from 1 to 16. Before the first weekend of the tournament, four games are played to determine the final four teams allowed into the round of sixty-four. The games are played between the four lowest-ranked teams that received an automatic bid and the four lowest-ranked teams to get at at-large invitation.
Once the field of sixty-four is set, games commence on Thursday and Friday with the higher-seeded teams playing lower-seeded teams. For example, a 1 seed faces off against a 16 seed, a 2 seed faces the 15 seed, etc. Lower-seeded teams that make a long run in the tournament are often known as Cinderellas. Many games are played simultaneously. To prevent either team from having an unfair advantage, all tournament games are played at neutral sites. By the last game on Friday night, the field of sixty-four teams is cut in half. Thirty-two teams then square off on Saturday and Sunday, with the surviving sixteen teams advancing.
The size of the field is halved again in each subsequent round. The remaining rounds each have a unique name corresponding to the number of teams still playing. These include the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and Final Four. At the conclusion of the Final Four, the last two remaining teams go on to play in the national championship game. The winner is ultimately crowned as college basketball’s national champion for the year.
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Upsets and Cinderellas
The sizable field often produces pairings of large schools from highly regarded conferences with smaller automatic qualifiers that may result in first-round upsets, which can then lead to underdog teams (known as “Cinderellas”) advancing far in the tournament. In the 2018 men’s tournament, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, became the first number 16 seed to upset a number one seed, Virginia.
Cultural Phenomenon: Brackets and Office Pools
It is a common practice for fans to fill out tournament brackets with their predictions before the event begins and to enter their brackets into office pools (or on the Internet) with friends and coworkers. Studies have shown that American workers become less productive during March Madness, as large numbers of basketball fans frequently monitor the status of their brackets or discuss the tournament (or even watch the games) while on the job.
Revenue and Economic Impact
Conversely, the NCAA earns approximately $1 billion in revenue for the tournament.
All tournament games are broadcast by CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV under the program name NCAA March Madness. With a contract through 2032, Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery pay $891 million annually for the broadcast rights. The NCAA distributes revenue to participating teams based on how far they advance, which provides significant funding for college athletics. The tournament has become part of American popular culture through bracket contests that award money and other prizes for correctly predicting the outcomes of the most games.
Women's NCAA Tournament
Basketball was one of 12 women's sports added to the NCAA championship program for the 1981-82 school year, as the NCAA engaged in battle with the AIAW for sole governance of women's collegiate sports. As of 2022, the tournament follows the same format and selection process as its men's counterpart, with 32 automatic bids awarded to the champions of the Division I conferences, and 36 "at-large bids" extended by the NCAA Selection Committee, which are placed into four regional divisions and seeded from 1 to 16. The four lowest-seeded automatic bids, and the four lowest-seeded at-large bids, compete in the First Four games to advance to the 64-team bracket in the first round. The national semi-finals, branded as the Women's Final Four, are traditionally scheduled on the same weekend as the men's Final Four, but in a different host city.
The tournament bracket is made up of champions from each Division I conference, which are automatic bids. The remaining slots are at-large bids, with teams chosen by an NCAA selection committee. Since 2022, 68 teams qualify for the tournament played in March and April. Of these teams, 32 earn automatic bids by winning their respective conference tournaments.
The first NCAA women's basketball tournament was held in 1982. The championship consisted of 32 teams from 1982 to 1985 (in 1983, 36), 40 teams from 1986 to 1988, and 48 teams from 1989 to 1993. From 1994 to 2021, 64 teams competed in each tournament.
Broadcast rights to the NCAA women's basketball tournament are included in a larger package covering most NCAA Division I championships, outside of men's basketball and golf. ESPN has held exclusive rights to the tournament since 1996. In 2021, ESPN adopted a broadcast arrangement similar to the men's tournament, with all games airing nationally in their entirety on either an ESPN linear channel or, for the first time, ABC.
Memorable Moments and Records
- Christian Laettner (Duke): The NCAA tournament’s all-time leading scorer with 407 points. From 1989 to 1992, Laettner played in an unprecedented 23 NCAA tournament games.
- Loyola Marymount: Part of the three highest scoring games in NCAA tournament history.
- Highest Scoring Game: On March 18, 1990, Loyola Marymount beat Michigan by a final score of 149-115 to total 264 points.
- Most Points in a Game: Notre Dame's Austin Carr holds the record for the most points in an NCAA tournament game, with 61 against Ohio in 1970.
- UMBC (2018): First 16-seed to win against a 1-seed, defeating No. 1 Virginia 74-54.
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